The so-called Steinmeier formula has its first failure. It’s about last week’s agreement that Ukraine and the self-proclaimed republics will withdraw their armed forces. They promised to begin from two settlements in Donbas – Petrovskyy and Zolotoye. What happened instead? Petrovskyy was shelled by the Ukrainian security officers. In Zolotoye they carry out a certain operation of the combined forces.
Summary
The basis of the Russian World idea is a fair society and world order. Russia’s foes are concerned about its prospects because it can potentially result in a post-Soviet reunification. Hence, the key tool of political war against the Russian World is Russophobia, i.e. a hostile attitude and hatred towards any Russian manifestations in the whole post-Soviet space. In Belarus, Russophobia is aimed at radically distorting the national consciousness of Belarusians. Its main tool is a doctrine of Polishness which presents Belarusian history through the lens of Polish-Catholic interests. The objective of the Polishness doctrine is not to turn Belarusians into Poles, although this scenario cannot be ruled out, but rather to change their cultural and civil belonging, to cultivate a hostile attitude towards Russia and the Russian World and to tear Belarus away from Russia. The competing civilisation project can be named the 4th Rzezhpospolita. Polishness and Belarusianness bring a threat to the integration processes in the post-Soviet space and to Belarus itself. We talk about the threat of transforming Belarus into a Russophobic and anti-Russian country. In Belarus, Russophobia is presented in three formats. First, the openly anti-Russian propaganda of the Association of Belarusian Language and other similar groupings. Second, pro-European parties which hide their pathological hatred of Russia under European values. They always paint Russia in a black light and present it as the source of evil on the planet, their activities are based on U.S. and EU instruments. Third, the Russophobia of Belarusian officials, the most dangerous type of Russophobia. A number of state bodies and universities for humanities are its representatives. All three types of Russophobia have a common objective: to take away the all-Russian basis of national consciousness from Belarusians, to turn Belarusians into haters of Russia, to create a ground for disrupting the Russian-Belarusian union, to revoke the Treaty on the Union State between Belarus and Russia, and to turn Belarus into anti-Belarus.
Disproof
This article represents a mix of conspiracy theories, groundless generalisations and assumptions which aim to discredit the West and Poland in particular, the democratic Belarusian opposition and specific NGOs such as the Association of Belarusian Language. It offers an arbitrary concept of Polishness, makes the preposterous claim that Belarusianness is a threat to Belarus and paints virtually all Belarusian organisations which do not clearly follow pro-Russian policies in any field as Russophobic. The article follows recurring pro-Kremlin narratives about Western aggressiveness and anti-Russian and anti-Belarusian activities, the West's attempts to disrupt Belarus-Russia relations, Russophobia in the West and everywhere including in Belarus, and Poland's plans to re-establish an empire at the expense of its Eastern neighbouring countries. See earlier disinformation messages alleging that Poland has plans to turn Belarus into a vassal, anti-Russian state with Belarus’ western part being an eastern part of a new Polish state, that the West is targeting the Union State between Belarus and Russia, that the Belarusian opposition, civic activists and independent journalists make kill lists for Western security bodies, and that the West's only interest in Belarus is to make it anti-Russian.